I was on fire when I woke up. Something was brushing against my face- a palm frond? I sat up slowly. Where was I? I saw blue sky, and jungle. Lots of jungle.
A sharp pain shot through my head when I tried to stand. I was confused over what had happened. I remember I was on a plane from Sydney to L.A., and suddenly we were hit with some horrible turbulence…
My eyes widened. Oh my gosh, my family! My parents were with me when—
When what? I rubbed my temple, wracking my brain. I looked up when I heard a distant crackle. At the edge of the beach I was lying on, there was a chunk of burning metal. That metal looked oddly familiar, like it belonged to a plane…
Our plane crashed. Oh God, our plane crashed. I tried to stand up to find my parents, only to collapse when pain ripped into my left leg. I glanced down, expecting to see only a gash, but instead saw something that made me want to vomit.
A piece of shrapnel was sticking out of my lower leg. Tears came to my eyes as I watched blood drip onto the sand beneath my leg. The sheer shock of seeing something like that was enough to make me start sobbing. I stopped, however, when I heard a shout.
I looked up to see a tall Iraqi man running towards me.
"Are you alright?" He asked. A few tears slid down my cheeks.
"I have… a piece of metal in my leg, I-I can't walk," I managed to say. It felt as if my throat were closing up. The man quickly strode over, and scooped me up.
"Hang on, I'll take you to Jack," he said, and began to jog up the beach.
"Who's Jack?" I asked, but before he could answer, we rounded a corner. I never really thought about how much destruction I saw daily, especially on the news. I just dismissed it, but now… For the first time in my life, I saw real carnage.
People were darting about; some were crying, others trying to help as much as they could. I saw a blonde girl, standing in the middle of it all, just screaming. I looked down, trying to get away from the horrors in front of me, and instead saw a bloody severed hand on the ground.
I whipped my head around, focusing on the collarbone in the Iraqi man's neck. I began mouthing something, a mantra of sorts.
"What?" The Iraqi man asked when he saw my lips moving. I looked up at him, trying my hardest to stay composed.
"I'm seventeen years old," I said. "Please tell me I'm going to get out of this alive." I knew it was a stupid thing to say, but nothing else came to mind.
"I can't promise you that," he replied. I looked down, my lips clamping shut.
We finally found the man we were looking for. I stood shakily when the Iraqi man set me down, leaning heavily on him. My leg was killing me, and blood had begun to cover the bottom portion of my jeans.
"Sayid, what is it?" Jack asked.
His name was Sayid. I documented it in my mind, to better remember it later.
"This girl needs bandaging. Her leg," Sayid explained, indicating the metal in my leg. Jack's eyes widened when he saw it, and he stared at my leg for a moment.
"Okay," he said, and took my hand. Sayid was gone a moment later. Jack sat me down, assessing the wound.
"What's your name?" He asked me, looking me right in the eyes.
"Marie," I replied.
"Okay, Marie. I'm going to have to pull this metal out," Jack said. I gulped, and nodded.
"Go for it," I quipped.
"You ready?" Jack asked. I nodded, gritting my teeth and gently gripping Jack's shoulder.
A sudden jerk, and I was in so much pain that I couldn't breathe. I opened my mouth, but I couldn't scream. I screwed my eyes shut, tears leaking out from beneath my eyelids.
"Are you alright?" Jack asked urgently. I could only nod yes.
Jack cleaned my wound, and pulled out a nasty-looking makeshift needle, along with some fishing line attached to it. I flinched away from him when he moved the needle to my leg.
"I need to stitch it," he reasoned. He noticed how I was looking at the needle with distrust, and chuckled. "Don't worry, it's been sterilized as best it can." I finally relaxed, allowing him to stitch my wound shut. He was beginning to put bandages on it when I noticed the blood running down his arm.
"You're hurt!" I cried. Jack gave me a look, and I saw his eyes flick to my hand for a moment. When I looked at my fingers, they were covered with blood. "Oh my God, I'm sorry! I squeezed you a little too tight, didn't I?"
Jack smiled. "Don't worry about it," he said, finishing off with the bandages. "There."
"Thank you," I said quietly. Jack left soon after, presumably to go help more people. I sat on the beach, trying to get up. My leg hurt too much right now to walk on. So, I stared out in to the ocean, trying to ignore the pain happening around me.
Exhausted, I finally closed my eyes.
A/N: First chapter. I don't know about this. What do you guys think?